Got your pass? Check. McLaren kit? Check. Okay good, now switch off your phone and follow us through the glass doors and into the Paddock Performance Centre. Grab a coffee on your way in and we’ll get started with our engineering briefing for the Dutch Grand Prix.

You'll have seen a lot of people hailing the Circuit Zandvoort as a classic of the Formula 1 calendar, but that doesn't mean we've a backlog of data on it, having not driven at the circuit for more than three decades between 1985 and 2021.

We're also competing in tremendously different machinery on a much-changed layout, with banking added at several corners, so there's plenty on the agenda in this weekend's engineering briefing.

Cédric Michel-Grosjean is leading and will take us through the need-to-know information. Take notes if you need them, but please keep them to yourself.

Engineer: Cédric Michel-Grosjean
Event: Dutch Grand Prix
Circuit: Circuit Zandvoort

Background

Practice in Zandvoort is going to be very, very busy. In Belgium, the FIA introduced a few new technical directives: for tyres; for the floor; for the plank and all the skidwear. That led to some extra work at Spa but also some things we need to investigate ahead of the Dutch GP, adding a few more test items into the programme for Friday.

One thing different for this weekend is that we’re going back to an old-school 2h30m gap between the sessions on Friday, rather than the two 2h gap that we’ve been using this year. The extra 30 minutes does make a difference, giving us a little bit more breathing room to analyse data and change the set-up… but it’s still going to be a very busy Friday.

Challenges

Obviously, we’ve only raced here once in recent times, so there’s limited data, which becomes more limited when we consider that the cars are very different this year. Thus, we’re packing a lot into the programme across both cars.

One item that will be noticeable is one of the drivers running some wing mirrors which could be considered for 2023. New rules aim to improve rear view through this, and each driver has to run them at least once this year, so one of the cars will be testing this.

1 | Downforce

Our decision on rear wing level will be interesting this weekend. The track is a maximum downforce layout – but running a little less downforce may aid overtaking into Turn One. Given how difficult overtaking was last year, serious consideration will be given to dropping the downforce level – if that aids overtaking.

2 | High fuel running 

Going into FP2, we’ll want to have the cars on track for longer. We didn’t get to do as much high fuel running as we would have liked at Spa, and want to make up for it here.

In Belgium, our high fuel running was compromised by red flags and rain at the end of the sessions. We’ll want to take advantage of a dry Friday here to do as many laps as possible in the high-fuel long runs , learning how the balance progresses with tyre degradation. And also, how the tyre behaves with more laps on it.

This is perhaps more important here because tyre wear is high and the choice of one or two stops is unclear. The quickest way to the flag is two-stops – but overtaking here is difficult, so there is that dilemma of doing one-stop and retaining track position, or doing two and having a quicker car, but having to overtake more people.

In practice, we have to learn what the pace difference is between the new and the old tyres, and the influence that has on overtaking. A longer high fuel run will help us understand the correct way to go in the race.

3 | Overtaking opportunities 

There are grounds to suspect overtaking might be easier this year. First of all, the DRS zone has been extended by a further 150m, with the activation point coming at the exit of Turn 13, before the banked final corner.

This may not provide much of a boost, because the high lateral loads around the banking scrub off a lot of speed – but we’ll have to see exactly how much help it provides.

Perhaps more pertinently, overtaking has holistically been a little easier this year. In Hungary, for example, we all thought overtaking would be crazy-difficult – but the reality was that it was much more straightforward than it has been in recent years. Zandvoort is a little more difficult than the Hungaroring but still, with the new cars, it should be a little easier on Sunday.

Briefing complete. Time for Lando and Daniel to head out onto the track so we can collect some data and put our hard work to the test.

Join the team

McLaren Plus is our free-to-join fan engagement programme, bringing McLaren fans closer to the team with the most inclusive, rewarding and open-to-all fan programmes in motorsport.

Sign up now, or current members can amend their details in the form below if necessary.